By combining climate concerns with everyday concerns, No Help Coming grapples with a global phenomenon through the personal lenses of its four members—and they tracked the record accordingly. The band, minus percussion and an organ, plays every instrument. Everyone sings lead at some point, background at others. Thanks to Vancouver producer Tom Dobrzanski, the overall sound is highly polished, but there are also live off-the-floor takes, song snippets from jam sessions, and voice memo recordings.

The result is an upbeat album that’s both cautionary and uplifting. “Leading up to the recording, we asked environmental experts what was missing from the conversation,” says McLeod. “And they all said the same thing: no more sad songs. We know the world’s messed up. What’s missing are more invitations to get real about making changes. And to do that, we have to get less precious about the subject.”

No Help Coming is more playful than precious. This makes sense, seeing it’s not about the survival of the planet, which will be just fine without us (“After You’re Gone”, “Ash”), but humanity. “It’s an album about resolve,” says Glynn. “It’s upbeat because there’s a lot of resolve to be found in joy. And while humans have a lot of bad things going for us, we can be pretty great at the joy part. So, let’s use it.”